Meet the team: Our Glost Operators

Patrick: I have Johnson Tiles products all through my own house, although a lot are the older products. I have Minton Hollins in my hallway, they are one of my favourites. I’ve got some printed tiles as well.

Allan: We handle that many that I couldn’t pick out one, but I always like to spot them when I’m out and about or in the shops.

Patrick:Teambuilding and getting everything out of the door, meeting targets and just achieving our goals at the end of the day.I enjoy being part of the team and rallying them together. The team I’ve got now is one of the best.

Allan:The best thing is the money! They’ve always been a good employer, I didn’t know about anything back then when I joined but it’s become a way of life. I’ve started on all the new systems that have come in since I’ve been here and that’s always exciting.

Richard:It’s long days and nights sometimes but you get your time off with the shift patterns we work and it’s worth having. We all get on as a team as well.

Allan:We check the quality of the tiles that come in up until they are packed, we check that the quality is good and the shade is ok.

Richard:We just run the line and keep it going as best we can. When the tiles are in the boxes we open some up and make sure they are all up to standard. 

Patrick:I went off to South Africa for a month in the early 1990s to install the presses at the South African plant and that’s still going. We were in Johannesburg, stopped in Pretoria, Sun City, that was a good experience. It was the inauguration of Mandela when I got there, I’ve still got the newspaper at home. That certainly sticks in the mind. 

Allan:I will have been here 35 years in April. I came straight out of the army and started here. I was in the Staffs Regiment before that. I’ve now been in Glost for 14 years.

Richard:I’ve been here for 12 months. I spent 33 years making fireplaces and then two-and-a-half years at JCB in Sandiford up the road, then an opportunity came up here. That’s the beauty of this place, there’s a lot more older people working here!

Patrick: I started here in 1965. It’s become a very good way of life, seeing all the changes. The most exciting part was the engineering side, I ended up as a works engineer for 30 years. I moved on to production because of all the changes that we had at the factory.

We’re going behind the scenes at our Stoke-on-Trent headquarters to introduce you to some of the key people who make sure every tile that leaves the factory is up to the highest standards.

Meet three of our Glost Operators from the Kiln Firing and Selection team, Patrick Baskeyfield, Allan Peach and Richard Crane. Team leader Patrick, aged 63, has been working at Johnson Tiles for an incredible 49 years. Glost Operator Allan, 58, is another long serving employee after 35 years with the company, while colleague Richard, 53, is a relative new boy to the team, having been at the factory for a year.